The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to towers used to support components, and more specifically, to lattice towers.
Tower structures can be used as bases to support structures, such as wind turbine components, mobile phone tower components, and utility tower components. Such towers are often constructed on site, as the towers themselves may be much larger than is practically transportable.
For wind turbine towers, such towers support wind turbines used to deliver more power to customers. At least some known wind turbine towers, such as tubular towers, are constructed from sheets of steel rolled into “cans”. Adjacent cans are subsequently welded together to form a tubular tower. However, as the need for higher tower heights has increased, the need to use stronger and thicker materials in the base of these towers has also increased significantly. Occasionally, the need for materials having an increased strength and/or thickness can be mitigated by constructing the tower structure with a base having an increased diameter. However, due to transportation limitations, there is a maximum practical diameter for the cans used in a tubular tower.
Other known towers that can be assembled in the field, such as lattice towers, offer certain advantages over tubular towers. The dimensions necessary for lattice towers can be optimized without regard to logistics costs, since such towers are assembled in the field. As such, the diameter of the base of a lattice tower can be fabricated to be as large as desired. However, it is generally more expensive to assemble a lattice tower in the field than to assemble a tubular tower in a factory. Moreover, assembling a lattice tower in the field generally takes more time than assembling a tubular tower in a factory. In addition, because of the weight, awkwardness, and unwieldiness of the lattice tower components, assembling a lattice tower in the field may be more difficult and complex than assembling a tubular tower.